A linker peptide with high affinity towards silica-containing materials

A peptide sequence with affinity to silica-containing materials was fused to a truncated form of Streptococcus strain G148 Protein G. The resulting recombinant Linker-Protein G (LPG) was produced in Escherichia coli and purified to apparent homogeneity. It displayed high affinity towards two natural clinoptilolite zeolites. The LPG also displayed high binding affinity towards commercial-grade synthetic zeolite, silica and silica-containing materials. A commercial sample of the truncated Protein G and a basic protein, both without the linker, did not bind to natural or synthetic zeolites or silica. We conclude that the zeolite-binding affinity is mediated by the linker peptide sequence. As a consequence, these data may imply that the binding affinity is directed to the SiO₂ component rather than to the atomic orientation on the zeolite crystal surface as previously assumed.